Sinusitis FAQ

Pain on landing

Question:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have recently started to suffer after many years’ respite of intense sinus pain on landing. Your inner ear has a very soft and small tube which connects it to your nose/sinus. As the plane rises, the cabin pressure goes down. The air in your inner ear wants to escape to equalise the pressure and can escape easily as it can "inflate" that tube and flow out. But as you go down, the cabin pressure goes up and air needs to go to the inner ear to equalise the pressure. Unfortunatly, the small tube, instead of inflating gets squeezed so it doesn’t let the air flow towards the inner ear and this is why it hurts as you go down since the the higher cabin pressure compared to the pressure in your inner ear pushes your ear drum in. The trick is to practice pushing air until you hear your ears go "pop". You pinch your nose and push air "up", increasing the pressure very slowly ubtil they pop. Once you are comfortable with this, you can do this on the plane. As soon as you feel the plane start its descent, do the nose pinch once per minute. When the pressure difference is small, it is easy to equalise. When the pressure difference is great, it is very hard to equalise. Good luck.

This usually works for me on planes, though I still sometimes have trouble.  I find it very painful to swim down more than a metre or so, and the pressure changes in water can be very rapid.  I once went to a ENT specialist about it, and he muttered about "barytrauma", which is doctorese for "pressure pain" but yours was the only palliative he was able to suggest,  It may be why some scuba divers use masks with soft rubber nosepieces (or a nose clip).   Robin

Response:

* *This usually works for me on planes, though I still sometimes have *trouble.  I find it very painful to swim down more than a metre or so, *and the pressure changes in water can be very rapid.  I once went to a *ENT specialist about it, and he muttered about "barytrauma", which is *doctorese for "pressure pain" but yours was the only palliative he was barotrauma, actually. —              "uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."                  upenn school of vet med class of 2000

Response:

I, too, have extreme pain occasionally when I fly.  It just started up again recently.  It feels like the back of my head is going to burst open!  The first time it happened, I was in tears.  "Popping" my ears never works because they never need popping, and if they do, I can "pop" them easily.  What I have had to start doing is carry some sort of decongestant with me when I fly.  Unfortuately, on my last flight, I forgot to take them ahead of time and I suffered.  I usually try to take them an hour before flight, and it seems to help.  Any over-the-counter kind works for me. Hope this helps! "A dream is a wish your heart makes…." Felicia

Response:

Looks like we have pains in different places and at different phases of the flight. For many of my long haul trips I have noticed that I get this terrible straining pain in the right upper part of my belly. It could almost be described as a constant spam. Even taking a breath hurts. It’s usually worst at the beginning of a long flight especially around the main meal time (just my luck). The problem usually goes away soon after a flight. But once it lasted a few more days. This problem never starts when I am on land. I have checked myself out with ultrasound on suspicion of gall stone/sludge. Nothing showed. The symptoms are not consistent with an ulcer either. I am now convinced that it’s probably related to "stress" before a flight… Well, we all have our own pains… Less pain, –Weiyun – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I, too, have extreme pain occasionally when I fly.  It just started up again recently.  It feels like the back of my head is going to burst open!  The first time it happened, I was in tears.  "Popping" my ears never works because they never need popping, and if they do, I can "pop" them easily.  What I have had to start doing is carry some sort of decongestant with me when I fly.  Unfortuately, on my last flight, I forgot to take them ahead of time and I suffered.  I usually try to take them an hour before flight, and it seems to help.  Any over-the-counter kind works for me. Hope this helps! "A dream is a wish your heart makes…." Felicia

Response:

I have recently started to suffer after many years’ respite of intense sinus pain on landing. This apparently has something to do either with change in pressure or change in altitude or both.I’d like to know if anyone else has encountered this problem (the cabin crew on my last flight seemed to be familiar with it) and if anybody knows how to prevent it or at least alleviate it (the cabin crew on my last flight did not.) Thanks a lot. John Atlas Jerusalem

Response:

I have recently started to suffer after many years’ respite of intense sinus pain on landing.

Your inner ear has a very soft and small tube which connects it to your nose/sinus. As the plane rises, the cabin pressure goes down. The air in your inner ear wants to escape to equalise the pressure and can escape easily as it can "inflate" that tube and flow out. But as you go down, the cabin pressure goes up and air needs to go to the inner ear to equalise the pressure. Unfortunatly, the small tube, instead of inflating gets squeezed so it doesn’t let the air flow towards the inner ear and this is why it hurts as you go down since the the higher cabin pressure compared to the pressure in your inner ear pushes your ear drum in. The trick is to practice pushing air until you hear your ears go "pop". You pinch your nose and push air "up", increasing the pressure very slowly ubtil they pop. Once you are comfortable with this, you can do this on the plane. As soon as you feel the plane start its descent, do the nose pinch once per minute. When the pressure difference is small, it is easy to equalise. When the pressure difference is great, it is very hard to equalise. Good luck.

Response:

Filed under: Sinus Pain

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